This must be the month for online shopping. As Netpop highlights the state of online shopping this month, Pew and Neilsen have each come out with their own take on the subject. If you haven’t seen those articles, here’s a quick synopsis:

Pew: Consumers acknowledge the convenience of online shopping, but concerns around placing personal and credit card information on the Web linger. Additionally, many consumers have been confused, frustrated and overwhelmed when researching products online.

Neilsen: The vast majority of Internet users in many countries around the world are shopping online, led by South Korea, the U.K. and Switzerland. (Not to worry: the U.S. is fourth.) Books are the most popular online purchase, followed by apparel, entertainment and travel items.

Our Netpop data offers some perspective on these findings. First, age does have a lot to do with the privacy and security concerns: 78 percent of 45+ are seriously concerned about credit/debit card fraud, versus 62 percent of 13 to 29 year-olds. But the concerns over privacy and safety are a bit of a red herring at this point. In point of fact, the percent who say credit/debit card fraud actually deters them from using the Internet more is dramatically lower: just 31 percent of 45+, and 18 percent of 13 to 29 year-olds. Moreover, while it is always in an e-commerce site’s best interest to use secure servers with all the appropriate icons and consumer reassurances, if an adult of reasonable means in an online market as mature as the U.S. or S. Korea has yet to start shopping online, it is questionable whether he or she will ever be a worthwhile marketing target.

We see the primary barrier to increased online buying to be the less-than-optimal online shopping experiences that we endure from time-to-time. As long as other, more satisfactory, modes of purchasing exist –a big, fun, local consumer electronics store for a new HDTV, the local pharmacy for shampoo, or an expert stock broker for buying mutual funds – the web will have to work harder to increase conversion rates.

But is an online sale the real end-goal? For some e-tailers, it is. But for many brands and retailers, a purchase in a retail store is just as valuable as one online, and seeing the web as somehow in competition with other channels is missing the point. Online research frequently leads to retail sales (28 percent of the time according to Netpop), and offline research can lead to online sales (10 percent of the time).

The real point is that consumers “own” the purchase process now – from initiation, to research and evaluation, to comparison, to decision, and, finally, to purchase. Consumers now have the tools and sources available to browse, dig and compare products to their heart’s content. With such a wealth of information, shoppers had better be ready for some degree of confusion and frustration. In other words, it is really theirs to choose – not necessarily to lose – if they decide to buy retail.